Late Flames call-up for Phiri, Chima

Raphael Phiri and Luke Chima have received late call ups to the Malawi National Football team ahead of the COSAFA Cup coming up later this month.

The two who failed to make the initial 27 man squad released last week have been rewarded for their robust form in the early stages of the 2018 TNM Super League season.

Flames

Phiri is currently the league’s top scorer with five goals, leading his team Civil Sporting Club into third position on the table with 10 points in five fixtures.

He has averaged a goal in each outing, netting all but just two of Civil’ goals this far.

Chima has also been in fine form for Tigers, plundering four goals in six matches.

His goals have lifted the Kau-Kau boys into second spot in the league with 12 points, 4 behind leaders Nyasa Big Bullets.

According to Flames team manager James Sangala, coach Ron Van Geneugden (RVG) had been monitoring the pair and deemed it timely to draft them in to compensate for the absence of Bullets players who have excused themselves for a week.

Bullets who had a league double-header in the central region over the weekend announced they will not return to Blantyre but proceed to Mzuzu for Saturday’s Airtel Top 8 quarterfinal second leg without releasing any of the seven players on the national team list.

“Phiri and Chima were on our standby list, so when Bullets players excused themselves, the coach decided to invite the two because we were somehow lacking at the training ground,” said Sangala.

The team started training on Monday and is camping at the Mpira Village in Chiwembe, Blantyre.

They will break camp on Thursday as players will be released for club commitments only to regroup next week Monday.

Malawi is in group B of the competition along with Angola, Botswana and Mauritius. The tournament will run from 27 May to June 9, 2018.

3 Comments

I believe we’ve the coaches in Malawi who can do better than this guy. Let’s desist from this tendency of employing someone because he is white. I believe even Ian Gorowa could do better than this one if we were really desperate for a foreign coach. Even our own Mabedi could do better than Ron.

Always, club games comes first because it’s where players get their income. It’s not a crime for Bullets players to give an excuse at this point because it is a well known fact that club games are more vital because they are more frequent than the national games. And,we’ve all witnessed how players are used and dumped without any assistance when they get injured. And again,Bullets is so desperate to win this trophy so that the sponsors should get motivated and the team reaching it’s target of three trophies in a calender year.

Besides,the game against Moyale is a tough one because when these two teams meet it’s more like the clash of the Titans so it requires a very handsome preparation.

I don’t understand Geneugden’s plans at all. Is he still building a team or it’s something else? When will our national team have a well organized team? Each time there’s a tournament’s we see new faces,why? I’ll always question why did we employ someone who never played football in the Jupiter League,a novice like him and expect our national team to excel? We’re really tired of losing, we want to be a team to reckon.

Always, club games comes first because it’s where players get their income. It’s not a crime for Bullets players to give an excuse at this point because it is a well known fact that club games are more vital because they are more frequent than the national games. And,we’ve all witnessed how players are used and dumped without any assistance when they get injured. And again,Bullets is so desperate to win this trophy so that the sponsors should get motivated and the team reaching it’s target of three trophies in a calender year.

Besides,the game against Moyale is a tough one because when these two teams meet it’s more like the clash of the Titans so it requires a very handsome preparation.

I don’t understand Geneugden’s plans at all. Is he still building a team or it’s something else? When will our national team have a well organized team? Each time there’s a tournament’s we see new faces,why? I’ll always question why did we employ someone who played football in